Fall in Paradise – A Pineapple and Rum Cocktail

When most people think of a tropical or tiki cocktail, they usually are thinking of sipping a drink by a pool on a warm summer’s day, but if you are like us and live in a spot where winter will chill you to the bone, its really nice to have a cocktail that brings a little bit of that tropical warmth to chase away a chill! Of course, one thing that is kind of ironic about these tropical drinks is that they are full of great fall and winter flavors like fresh citrus and warm spices like star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, and even allspice!

Throw a couple of these great winter flavors into the mix and before you know it, you will have a great cocktail like our Fall in Paradise that can chase a chill away!

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We started thinking about this cocktail a few months ago when we started playing around with our Homemade Allspice Dram and its rich warm spice flavor and we were thinking of all kinds of traditional tiki cocktail that use allspice dram but we also happened to have a great local apple cider on hand. Apple cider is one of those ingredients that just hollers out fall and winter, and while isn’t necessarily a common tiki ingredient, apple cider plays really well with a lot of those great spice flavors that are so familiar to the tiki world! Why not mix in a little apple cider with some tiki flavors and see where we go?

Since we were in a tiki sort of mood, we started out with the quintessential tiki spirit, rum, and in this case a nice aged Demerara rum, which is full of caramel richness, fruity sweetness and just a hint of oak. Demerara rum is one of the most commonly used rums in tiki thanks to Don The Beachcomber, (the famous godfather of Tiki) who loved the rich, complex flavors this style of rum imparted to his classic tropical concoctions.

Made in Guyana on the shores of the Demerara river from sugar cane grown on nearby plantations, the juice from the crushed sugar cane is processed through wooden chutes into the original wooden stills (giant tanks that are made from wood planks and then topped with a big copper pot) which imparts a very unique and complex flavor to the rum being distilled. The wood of the tanks and stills retains flavors from previous batches and imparts those flavors to the batch being distilled, all of which leads to a rum with lots of character!

Once we had the spirit and cider figured out, we wanted to add a little of that tropical warmth we were looking for to get that winter chill out of our bones! One of our favorite tiki flavors is pineapple, where you get that great combination of sweet and tart and a definite tropical feel. Pineapple juice adds a great color and flavor and works really well to add sweetness to balance out the crisp tartness of the apple cider. Adding in a little fresh squeezed lime juice adds another layer of tropical flavor while adding in a nice brightness to the cocktail!

Of course this journey started with wanting something to use our Allspice Dram in, we have to add in the allspice dram. The allspice brings a rich dark spicy layer to the cocktail that brings those warm baking spice flavors that rounds out the sweet caramel flavors from the rum while bringing a depth of slightly bitter flavor that balances out the sweet tart of the juices while adding a complexity to the whole cocktail. A few dashes of Bitter Truth Peach Bitters adds another burst of summery peach flavor to the whole combination and makes this cocktail a real hit!

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